If you are starting a journey, you need to plan it very carefully. You need to understand each of the milestones that you need to cover. The same applies for your journey towards an eight-figure salary. You need to understand each of the milestones, and also need to have a plan to cover them properly. In this blog I will talk about your complete journey, all the key milestones and how you would be covering them.
Let’s come to the fourth point of our five-point action plan. If you remember, I had told you to go back to the second part of this blog series and look at the 15-year journey that I had illustrated, where you can move from a 10 lakh salary to a one crore per annum salary over 15 years. Replace the starting point with your current salary and then see how the same simulation works for you. I am sure you would have completed that exercise because in this blog I am going to cover the fundamental objective behind doing this exercise and then I will also explain how you can operationalise this very effectively.
Let’s look at the first point of the milestone now. In the example that I had given you, the starting point was 10 lakhs per annum salary. Now you are replacing it with your current number. It could be lower or higher; don’t worry about that. You just put your own current number there. Assuming you are at 15 lakhs per annum salary, then you need to apply exactly the same number as the starting point.
The 10% increment that you would get every year, the promotion increments, the increases which will come to you because of a job change; all the salary boosters – you need to apply them in the same manner and then you have to figure out the time frame that you will take to reach the figure of one crore.
The whole idea behind doing this exercise is to lay down the complete road map in front of you and make it personal. So far, the example that I had given you was a neutral example where there was someone who was earning 10 lakh salary per annum and I had taken that person towards the one crore per annum salary. Now, make that example personal by replacing the starting point. Rest of the rules should remain the same. Assume that the same events will keep happening with you over a period of time as mentioned in the illustration. This will give you an idea that how things would actually take shape in reality. While in the real world events could be different for you but at this stage don’t worry about that and don’t get too concerned about whether you will get a promotion in those many years, whether actually you will change a job in those many years, etc. At this juncture, it is all about creating a personal starting point where this whole example that I had given in part two of this blog series could become your own. Now you will have your complete road map in front of you with all the milestones clearly laid out. That’s the whole purpose of the fourth point of the action plan.
Now let’s move to the next step. Let’s look at our three experience buckets – zero to three years, four to ten years and ten plus years and how each one of them can operationalise this roadmap.
Zero to Three Years Experience Bucket
If you are in the zero to three years bucket, the example that I had given you in the part two of this blog series is very much like your own example. My starting point was 10 lakhs and you would be somewhere very close to that. It could be five lakhs per annum or it could be 15 lakhs but more or less it would be close to the example which was given in that illustration. Now you just need to change the starting point, put your own number and more or less you will have to understand it in the same manner; the way it has been explained in the illustration. Having done that, now you have your key milestones clearly laid out in front of you and you need to start thinking as to how you will achieve them. If a promotion has been given after these many years in the illustration, what you need to do to earn that promotion? What you need to do to probably move to a new job or an enhanced role in a new company? All that you need to start planning because at least it has given you a very clear roadmap basis which you can plan out your next few years. Right now just plan for next three to five years. That’s what you need to keep in mind. Don’t worry about the full 12 to 15 years right now. Look at what are the key milestones that you have to achieve in next three to five years and start working towards them.
Four to Ten Years Experience Bucket
In this experience bucket, you would realize that you are little ahead of others. So, probably your starting point would not be 10 lakhs, it may be 20 lakhs or 30 lakhs, whatever your current number is and your overall time period to reach the one crore salary could be lesser than 15 years. It could be 10 years or 12 years; whatever the number is, now your starting point has been very clearly set and from there you can clearly understand what are the key milestones that you have to cover to reach one crore per annum salary. Again, as I said in the previous group, you also need to start thinking about your next three to five year’s key milestones which are mentioned in this simulation. Now it’s not a simulation, it’s your own plan; so start planning about all that what is mentioned for the next three to five years and start working towards achieving them.
Ten Plus Years Experience Bucket
All of you who are in this bucket; you are in a zone where you are closest to the one crore salary mark and each of the steps that you plan and take are extremely important. You may be probably looking at next five years or seven years to achieve that eight figure salary, so that’s why each of the milestones become very critical. Additionally, if you remember, in the previous blog I had spoken about one master step. That is the master step that you need to start planning now. In the simulation also, you would realize that somewhere you are required to take that master step. That’s why you need to be very careful about planning that master step which could give you a 30 to 40 jump in your salary in one go. Since you are closest to the goal, that’s why each step is very critical. You need to plan each step very carefully and you need to execute them very carefully. So, now when you clearly know the milestones that you have to cover in the next three to five years, the journey becomes more exciting. The whole objective of the fourth step of the five point action plan is to give you clearly defined milestones. It helps you plan your journey over the next three to five years. It tells you what are the few things that you need to do, what is the kind of salary increase that you need to achieve over these years. The method could be different, but very clearly keep in mind that if in this simulation (which is now your simulation, your own journey) if you have to achieve a certain increase, how that increase would come? You have to keep ensuring that at least you achieve the minimum level which is mentioned in the simulation. You must achieve that every year and that’s how your journey towards the core club will become more meaningful and you will keep moving at the right pace.